1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an audio device, and in particular relates to a multimedia audio dock connected to a portable electronic device.
2. Related Art
Presently, portable electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA) or MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) players use earphones to provide audio output. Some models may be provided with miniature built-in speakers, but a single speaker can not provide stereo sound output, and the size is too small to output sufficient power, so that the volume of sound the speaker produces is too low to be heard clearly. Hence built-in speakers are useless in producing effective audio output. Generally, most of the user use earphones to provide audio output for portable electronic devices, or use a large size speaker connected thereto as another audio output device. The size of a conventional speaker is large, so that the speaker is not convenient to be carried or to be kept somewhere. Moreover, it is connected to the portable electronic device by a wire so that it does not fulfill the requirement of portability.
Generally, a personal digital assistant (PDA) may be connected to a dock and be stood on the dock. Meanwhile, the dock provides data syncing and charging for the electronic device. Such a dock does not have multimedia functions and cannot provide audio output for the PDA. Presently, some multimedia players, such as MP3 players, are provided with the dock to add more functions. For example, iPOD and iPOD Shuffle etc. produced by Apple Computer Co., have their dedicated docks. Such a dock is an interface between an MP3 player and a personal computer provide data syncing and charging functions. It may also be provided with a high power speaker so that the audio output of the MP3 player is not limited to the earphones. Yet this type of dock is designed for a certain model of electronic device and may not be used on other models of devices. Furthermore, such a dock is designed to have the shape of a platform, so that it can rest stably on a flat surface. Thus, it has the problems of being too large sized and not convenient to be carried or to be kept somewhere.